It’s amazing to think that it’s almost a decade since the Home Nations snooker series was launched.
The Welsh Open had already been a well-established tournament, having been a regular fixture on the annual calendar since 1992.
A decision was taken to grow sister events in the nearby nations, with tournaments in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland launched while each adopted similar formats.
The prize fund was relatively small in the beginning, but prestige was elevated by linking famous names from the sport with the trophy that would be presented for each event.
The rejuvenated Welsh Open offered the Ray Reardon Trophy, while the new English Open winner landed the Steve Davis Trophy.
Belfast’s Alex Higgins was a poignant name attached to the Northern Ireland Open, while seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry was an obvious pick for Scotland.
In the first few years, the Home Nations snooker series provided a dangling carrot of an outrageous reward to its champions.
If any player could manage to win all four events in the same season, they would have received an incredible £1 million bonus.
A total of 28 match wins in a row were needed to land the lucrative sum, so unsurprisingly nobody really came close and the extravagant prize no longer exists.
That being said, the Home Nations snooker series will provide a £150,000 bonus during the 2024/25 campaign for the player who performs the best across all four events.
Overall, the Home Nations Series has generally been perceived as a success since its inception, and the champion of each single event this season will earn £100,000 – up from £70,000 at the beginning.
Several of the heavy hitters have been regular winners, but there have also been a number of fairy tale victories that have stirred up the emotions.
So many of the Home Nations finals have been thrillers as well, with eight of the 32 title-deciding matches lasting the full 17 frames.
A further nine clashes ended with 9-7 scorelines, including all four finals during a compelling 2018/19 campaign for the series.
In total, there have been 17 different Home Nations snooker champions, from which six have won more than one title.
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2024 English Open draw and info
One of those players has won an impressive six titles in the series and is among the favourites for this year’s English Open at the Brentwood Leisure Centre.
Now a permanent fixture on the schedule, the Home Nations looks like it will be around for many more years to come.
The question is, can you name the champions from each Home Nations snooker event so far?
Be careful, because some players on the answer list haven’t even won any Home Nations titles.
Click here if you can’t see the quiz. (Sporcle website)
Featured image credit: World Snooker Tour
Got all right! One thing that might confuse people is we get asked for the 2024 Scottish Open winner as opposed to the 2023 champion! The last Scottish Open was December last year.
That, indeed, would be confusing. Fixed! Well done by the way.
Thanks. Remembering when Trump and Selby won is perhaps the trickiest element to it as they’ve been the most prolific winners.